23:26!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

October 4, 2008

Not only did I improve my time by over a minute, I ended on a 26!!! Just before 2 miles:

The race was AWESOME. I was really stiff and not feeling that energized when we left at 6 this morning for the lightrail. We woke up at 5 and stumbled around to make a mini breakfast. I had a piece of toast with mashed banana, PB & J, plus a drizzle of honey.

And Sarah reminded me of the energizing effects of caffeine before a workout, so I had a TINY cup of coffee with milk –

We left for the lightrail at 6 and ran a nice 1.3 mile warm up to get there. It was dark and cold, but we had adrenaline! My breakfast was sloshing around a bit, but I survived. Sarah and me on the lightrail, which we JUST made because it was 10 minutes early!!

Once uptown we still had 5-6 blocks to walk to the race start. There were TONS of people everywhere and we had to wait in long lines to get our chips. And it was really cold and I was getting stiff. I have no idea how, but our other teammates Melisa and Tom, from Greensboro, found us in the crowd

And then we were off!!!!!!! There was really bad bottlenecking at the beginning – I was hitting people left and right. I actually ran the first half mile on a sidewalk because the street was too crowded. I feel like I could have gained a few seconds if it weren’t for the crowds during the first mile.

The husband was so fast he didn’t run, he hovered!

Sarah + Melisa. Thanks to Josh and Tom for being the photographers!!

Me at about 1.75 miles, right before a huge hill. Charming photo of me –

The first mile was relatively flat, or at least the hills were short and were over quickly. I felt really fast and strong and did my best to sprint through the crowds. We were in a cool neighborhood too, which made the scenery more fun. But right before the 2 mile marker we headed back into the city and started up a really long low-grade hill. It probably went on for at least half a mile, or maybe even longer! I really thought I was slowing to a 9-minute mile, but I didn’t want to look at my watch. Although I was passing people, I felt sluggish and got a cramp in my side. That hill was KILLER. But I just kept running as fast as I could and soon enough we were rounding the final stretch, which I would guess was about half a mile long. I heard a man say “it’s all downhill from here” and knew I had to start sprinting. I looked at my watch for the first time and saw that I was at 21:23 and could see the finish in the distance. I knew I could beat my record time of 24:48 from 2007 at this point and sprinted the entire way in! I have to say, you guys were on my mind the whole stretch

At the finish line!!

My official time was 23:26 with an average mile of 7:41.

The husband = 20:39!!!!!!!! With an average mile of 6:47!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was his first timed 5K as an adult and he had no idea how he’d do. I have to say I’m very impressed!!

Sarah was 24:24 – stellar!

Melisa clocked in at 29:30 – a whole 2 minutes faster than her record time!

Let me take a moment to thank you all again who donated on behalf of Team KERF! The $1,367.60 we raised was totally by chance. I just decided to run a race and then found out we could form teams and thought I might be able to raise a few dollars. I never thought we’d have so much success and generosity come from all of you. So THANK YOU once again!!!

Breast cancer has touched a number of my friends and family –

My Grandma Younger

My mother-in-law, Karen

My mom’s writing partner and good friend Lisa Flinn

And family friends of ours, including both mom’s of my sister’s college roommates who are still battling the disease.

I wore an “In Celebration” sign on my back while I ran

After the race we had some free coffee (I just had 2 sips of the husband’s) and a smoothie from Smoothie King (a tiny half cup). How come there aren’t cool bars like Lara and Clif at MY races!?!?!

We moseyed back to the lightrail and made the trek home, including another 1.3 mile jog back home. All in all, I think we covered about 6.5 miles this morning!!! My legs sure feel it

Oatmeal Extravaganza

As promised, Team KERF members were treated to a post-race oatmeal buffet!

We made a 6X batch in our huge pot and portioned it all out into an assortment of bowls by weight so that everyone got an equal portion (since the bowls were all different sizes and it was hard to eyeball)

The Guest Batch:

2 cups oats

2 cups vanilla soy milk

2 cups water

5 small bananas

3 tbsp vanilla

5 pinches salt

About 3/4 cup spelt berries

Toppings galore!

Dining –

With a tiny bit more coffee

And I’ll end with this goofball sporting a free pink scarf

And…..

We’re off to relax a bit (perhaps take an Ibuprofen) and then head out to Great Grapes by bike!! Let’s hope it turns out better than last year’s non-memory.

Wow Congratulations on the awesome race!
I just ran my first 5K race two weeks ago. I’m new to running, and suffer from asthma, so my time of 42 min wasn’t too impressive, but it was such a great feeling to actually finish!
Seeing your stats inspires me to keep training and improving my time. =)

Kath, I see you got a new food scale? I have the small roundish Salter one you recommended earlier, but I think my [travel] and general non-gentle abuse may be causing it to go buggy (randomly says negative #s when it shouldn’t/is not touched, adds a few grams randomly, etc.) Is yours a new one? Brand? Is it any better? Please advise. Thanks!

Congrats on your time and raising the money.. looks like a fun day and great friendships made throught the blogging world. Glad we can all be some inspiration to you. Hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.. nice voice hubby!

Congrats, you should all be pleased with those times – they are great. Thank you for doing this race, I feel very strongly about raising money for various cancer research. Breast Cancer running (Race for the Cure to be exact) is how I got started. It’s hit my family hard, my mom is a 2x survivor, as is my grandmother but we’re currently waiting for results on a biopsy since it looks like she may be facing her 3rd battle with the disease. Anytime I hear about people doing good for a cause like this, it just warms my heart!

hey kath –
can i ask again about your exercise routine? is there a reason why you want to bike after running 6.5 miles this morning? have you “upped” the amount of calories you burn through exercise since you stopped counting calories? because it seems like you are doing a lot more than before…

This post just made my day! Congratulations to TEAM KERF on a very successful race!! I love all of the pictures and ESPECIALLY love those videos – thank you for including those! Helium voices are the best 😉 I am so happy for all of you!

Kath, We ran into your first grade teacher last night. She was pleased and surprised to see you in Shape Magazine. She posted the article outside of her classroom, with a note that you are a former student.

Stacey M,
We got this one a while back from Amazon. I like this one fine. It’s another Saltar. I think all scales go buggy after a while, which is why we got a new one.

smilesara ,
You often seem to want to find a calorie motive in my actions. I would encourage you to look at the bigger picture. ALL of the exercise I did yesterday was done for a reason other than burning calories. We ran to and from the lightrail for a pre-race warm-up and because it didn’t make sense to drive a mile. We ran the race for a good cause and for the fun of it. We biked to the wine festival because we obviously didn’t want to drink and drive, but also because we’re trying to use our cars as little as possible on the weekends. There is so much more to these activities than burning calories.